It’s no secret to my friends that I’m extremely uncomfortable with the word “expert” or “guru” when it’s applied to myself. For me, the word has an added definition that says, “I know it all, there’s nothing else to learn, so I’ll teach you.”

Yesterday I referred to someone as an expert in his industry. I wasn’t sure what to label him, to be honest. I know him personally. I’ve seen him speak at conferences on his topic. His company is fully dedicated to his area of expertise, as are his staff and his blog. Interviews of him focus on his experience and successes. Does that make him a guru? Does he call himself one? I rarely see him refer to himself as an “expert”, despite the tremendous following and excellent reputation his company has.

There are people and companies who permit press releases and articles to refer to them as experts in their industry or niche. Occasionally I’ll discover someone claiming to be a respected expert in an area that I know is a real stretch. These are the folks who teach on topics that if you ran a keyword search on them, you wouldn’t see their name attached to the industry they’re claiming to be an expert on.

Press releases are modern day fairy tales.

I keep an eye out for companies in my local area who announce their new in-house SEO department or advertise they’ve added usability testing. I’d like to meet these people and invite them to some of the local networking gatherings we have. However, whenever I follow up on these great and innovative companies, in most cases I’m disappointed. The latest is the advertising company that had a announcement about adding search engine marketing and usability testing services, whose entire web site is in Flash. There was simply no finding them in search engines. I tried.

Whom to Believe?

I’m not a born marketer and no matter how hard anyone tries to make me one, it’s just not going to happen. I was the kid who mucked my horses stalls barefooted. Gross, when I look back on it, but yes, I wasn’t afraid to work or get dirty (or die, apparently.)

I was the silly woman who gazed adoringly at IT guys, gleefully pulling up a chair next to them, begging to be shown what brilliant thing they were making now. I felt that I couldn’t do my own job well unless I understood how and why they did their’s.

When looking for someone to do business with, how trustworthy and credible is their claim to be an “expert” or “guru” in their field? How do you verify their claim? Do you even bother? Is the term so over-used that it doesn’t hold any marketable value?

Whom to Trust?

Periodically I’ll hear from someone who finds a link on one of my sites that just sent them to Jupiter. They feel that no usability “expert” would tolerate this. I wouldn’t know. I own and run three web sites, write for many others, plus a print magazine, own a business, and am a wife and sports/homework/taxi/band mom.

(By the way, no women have ever written to complain about my web sites. It’s always been men. I think I should invite them to my house and let THEM deal with the teenage daughter and her boyfriend while trying to work in the home office. Whaddya think?)

The first thing to know about me is that I’m not perfect. I’ll never pretend to know it all because frankly, if that would ever happen, I’d be bored out of my mind. I’m happy to share what I learn and discover. I can guide based on data, conclusions drawn from my work and observations in the field.

I’ll introduce you to people or companies who have proven to me they know what they’re doing, who have displayed good work ethics or clearly show strong talent.

Some of my favorite “experts” are those who openly share as they go. This gets into some severe reputation management problems because when they make any mistakes, the public attacks are swift and fierce. The odd thing is this. I admire those who just fell in the mud, got back up, made adjustments based on the lessons they learned and they keep on going.

I trust them because they have nothing to hide or take a licking and keep on ticking, as the saying goes. Even if they continue to do something that I may think is hurting their business reputation, I give them points for continually asking questions because the moment they stop asking those questions is the moment they become frozen and unapproachable.

To me, the worst thing is a business person who is frozen and unapproachable.

Are You a Pink Pedestal or Well Used Umbrella Person?

For me, a genuine expert or guru is the one who will sit down with me on the floor, look into my eyes, and guide me towards solving my own puzzles without actually giving me the answers, because if they did, the lesson won’t stick.

I believe that learning never stops, we’re equals and you may know something in a way I hadn’t considered or experienced before.

I’d be interested in hearing from you. Do you like the term “expert” or “guru”? If you are referred to as one, do you accept the label? Do you think it’s true of you?

How many of you are content to just want to do the work without the hero worship?

To help celebrate two years as the leading print publication for the search engine marketing industry, Search Marketing Standard is deeply discounting its subscription rate until December 10, 2007. Not only that, they’ll donate $1 to Toys for Tots, for every subscriber that uses the coupon code.

For a limited time only, new subscribers can get a 67% discount off the subscription price. This means a 1 year U.S. subscription would be $4.95 (International - $6.60). The magazine comes out 4 times a year and is loaded with articles covering search engine optimization, marketing, usability and related web design themes.

To get this rate before the special ends, Subscribe here and use this coupon code: HOLIDAY67

The Winter edition is out and once again its packed. There’s an interview with social media marketing expert, Chris Winfield, of 10e20. Kevin Gold writes about conversions in “Conversion Rates are Relative”, and Tom Dahm writes an interesting piece called “The Banner Ad Strikes Back”. The winner of Marketing Pilgrim’s SEM Scholarship Contest, Jeff Horsager, gets to see his winning article in print. It’s called “Increase Conversion Rates with Google Website Optimizer”.

Social media fans may enjoy Joe Whyte’s “I’ve Stumbled, Dugg and Reddit and It is Del.icio.us - What Next?” Another interesting topic was covered by Milind Mody called “Outsourcing Search Marketing to Low-Cost Labor Destinations”. Two usability articles made this issue. I wrote “Website Feedback: Your Secret Online Marketing Tool” and Nick Osborne also tackled conversions with “Why Now? Using the Power of Urgency to Increase Online Conversion Rates”.

With 14 articles in this issue, there is something for everybody. If you’re new to SMS, now’s a great time to pick up a subscription, try it out and benefit a great cause.

There was a theme for this year’s Thanksgiving holiday and it had to do with age. I attended two Thanksgiving dinners. One was with some of my husband’s gigantic family at an aunt’s home in Maryland, 3.5 hours away. The other was at my house, with our kids, my parents, more of my husband’s family and a perfectly brined turkey.

In Maryland, the conversation that I remember the most focused on how different life is for young people today. There’s no more science chemical kits for Christmas that could possibly blow up a house, for example. Somehow, the Elders marveled, they had survived lead paint in houses and toys, BB guns, Barbie, Bambi, RoadRunner and bikes that had no gears. In my house, we didn’t own a color TV. The Elders walked more, read more, and never had a clue beforehand who was calling on the telephone because there was no such thing as “Caller ID”.

They laughed and laughed about the things they created with parts and pieces of things, and the near misses of serious accidents like blowing off fingers from fire crackers rigged to do things they weren’t intended to do. They seemed grateful they had the chance to make mistakes and make their own rules when it came to play and creativity.

The discussion in Pennsylvania, at my house, was fascinating because much of the perspective of the old days came from my pioneering father, who worked for Philco and AMP (among a few big name companies) inventing radios and computer technology. He was a future thinking electronics engineer and yet today, he admits they had no idea that someday their ideas would be used in cell phones, tiny computer chips and ipods.

His idea of play was to invent new things. One afternoon in 1975, he showed me how he took apart a calculator and invented a light meter for a camera from its insides. He also built me my stereo from scratch when I was 16. I didn’t appreciate that feat then, but I do now.

The Elders didn’t complain about today. Rather, they wondered why things had changed so much.

I described how my kids read labels on everything because they’re hyper aware of warnings. They look for “Made in China” and don’t want to buy the product. They want every anti-bacterial product they can get their hands on. They read ingredients on food products because they understand that their health depends on wise choices. This surprised the Elders. They wondered how they survived growing up and what’s scaring young people so deeply.

Then I described how my kids don’t know how to be creative. The boys like to write stories in school but the stories are centered around themselves, not the world around them. It’s as if it’s not there at all. My daughter’s world is school, cell phone, TV and computer. All of them want PlayStation 3, when we already have PS2 and PS1. Or they’ll take XBox. They’d be cool with that. I’m not.

I grew up with a black and white TV, notebooks to write in and a mile walk to the bus stop. The kids laugh at me and how poor I was. And yet when I was 9 years old, I wrote my first book.

It was an anthology of short stories and poetry called “Let’s Create”. My third grade teacher was an artist and taught us how to use our imaginations. I wrote on any topic, including horses, bugs, my best friend and my little sister. I made a puppet that year and was supposed to be in a play but I never went on stage because I had severe stage fright (which carries over to the present as well.)

The Elders were shocked to hear that many schools don’t offer after school sports anymore for free (there’s a fee), no physical education (gym) classes, no metal or woodworking shop and no sewing and cooking classes. Several school districts around us have canceled these classes, but my kid’s schools still offer them. Therefore, my son came home beaming with his latest sewing project in which he made a cloth carry all bag to hold his sports shoes and clothes. He embroidered his name on it too. Granted, sewing isn’t his thing but there was no denying his excitement over having made something himself and making it the way he wanted to.

In usability oriented web design, I’m always thinking about how people use web sites and what they want from them. It’s interesting to me to study the Flash debate because on the one hand, Flash presents a way for limitless forms of Internet art and expression. However, it’s critically limited because not everyone will ever see it or have access to it.

The Elders felt that life today is about not taking risks and trying new things. For example, when my Dad invented a solution for something out of parts of something else, he was recycling. They didn’t call it that back then of course.

Back then, they weren’t ready to sit still and watch DVD’s, video games and go online shopping.

They were curious enough to take apart what they already had, to see what else they could make it do.

Last Friday I hinted at change and today I’ll hint more. I feel like I’m reading a book, the characters are all deeply involved in the action and I can’t wait to see how they resolve everything. Today, I’ll put to rest the rumors about Cre8asiteforums.

I die, see Dumblefore, who only pretended to die in the last book, and we magically both come back to life just in time to save the world from the devastation created by social media sites and Google.

It Takes a Village to Raise a Forums

Cre8asiteforums is taking new steps towards becoming a conscious contributor to the web site design and search engine marketing industries. We changed our tagline from “Building Better Websites Together” to “Building Better Web Sites Together, For A Better World”.

After Thanksgiving and hopefully next month, I’ll announce our forums Site Sponsor. They are a well-known company who have been strong supporters for Cre8asiteforums and have offered to financially assist the forums in our mission to provide community, support and peaceful co-creation and product development. In return, they get to share their business, products and services with a mighty global reach.

One of my personal guiding principles is the Native American belief, “We’re all Relatives”. They believe that everything is Life, from the “two legged” (humans), to “four legged” (animals) and all plants, rocks, insects, sea life, etc. (It extends to the Ancestors and Spirits Unborn yet too.) When you approach life with the belief that everything you do has an effect on a Relative of your’s, you become more conscious, instead of unconscious, as we tend to be in the daily whirlwind of life.

I can’t begin to describe how difficult it is to run an Internet forums when you believe that everyone who arrives, including the spammers, are Relatives. Even the people who are arrogant, uncooperative, and have an agenda are valuable and rightfully there.

I think it’s very difficult for the people who chose to be Moderators in Cre8asiteforums to be patient in a forums where “Mom”, as I’m sometimes referred to, believes automated bots should be invited to Thanksgiving dinner. (Okay, I don’t really. I’m not that evolved yet.)

The point is, my Co-Administrator, Bill Slawski, and I, care deeply about where web development and web marketing fits into the Big Global Picture and how we can co-create with like-minded professionals in ways that manifest into positive, mindful products, without hurting or destroying the planet along the way.

We’re thinking Green Marketing. We’re inspired by positive problem solving and cooperation.

The Color Green

Green is the color of trees. Green is also the color of USA money and since I live in America, it’s the color I see the most of. (Actually, if you use PayPal, it has no color at all.)

As part of our “going green plan”, Cre8pc.com is turning Cre8asiteforums into a revenue generating business.

I have a VERY LONG PLAN, which I gave to Bill to help me whittle down to SOMETHING PLAUSIBLE. Yesterday I announced to our Moderators the introduction of two new forums. I’ll tell you about them once we name and install them. One is focused on non-profit endeavors and one is focused on for-profit. We like the balance there.

The forums blog, Cre8tiveFlow, stays and is undergoing an overhaul. We’re a forums known for incredible discussions that tap into what people are thinking, feeling and questioning. The blog highlights them. We also have prolific writers on our staff and the Community at large, who we’ll be giving more exposure to. Friends in the business who have reputable books, educational programs, and tools with affiliate programs attached, will find a home in our Blog to advertise them.

Baby Steps

This is just a hint of what’s to come. A mere whisper, in fact. For 2008, as we get “play money”, we will be supporting the industries we serve in ways we’ve long dreamed of doing, in ways we know will help based on a year of research and feedback.

Big Step

What began as a club in 1998 and formed into a forums in 2002, is now looking at its 10th year in 2008. Fame and fortune were never the purpose of starting the discussion forum. I felt it was time, in today’s Internet environment, to make changes because the forums are too large to be a simple “labor of love” project.

There are no unrealistic expectations for a flawless flow of change and I have no desire to turn Cre8asiteforums into “Fluffy the cat”, where everything is politically correct and coordinated by Disney.

The only obvious difference is that we’ll be running the ship more like a business so we can do more stuff.

This week was powerful. It was the end of my son’s football season and I was so impressed with him that for two days I was in deep thought, even lying awake at night with the realization that my 14 year old son had become my hero. When everything that could go wrong, did, he scored the most amazing touchdown in the last 2 minutes of one of the games that had all the parents on their feet. And all he did was to show his heart.

Passion has always been my guiding light. It’s an odd light because others don’t always see it, when you know darned well it’s right there. This week I struggled to come to a decision about where I’d go with my usability work. Was I any good at this? Is there something else I can offer? How does usability work improve life for anyone? The answers came in this week’s discussions in several places about user personas, as well as positive feedback on work I had done for someone new.

User personas are about improving an experience for someone other than yourself. My light flickered and things felt right again.

Last night I presented a rough outline of a plan for the future of Cre8asiteforums to my friend and Co-Administrator, Bill Slawski, that I’d struggled and agonized over for months. The forums are five years old and its earlier incarnation was formed in 1998. I’m burned out one minute and energized the next. Is this normal? Where is the forums administrators support group?

It was funny to watch Bill read my official 4 page brain dump and see him making faces. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking and that drove me nuts. We had a meeting, surrounded by friends, one of my other moderators, Li Evans, and my husband, Eric. It was the moment where I needed to make a personal commitment to move forward and ask Bill if he was ready to stick it out with me a little longer. He said yes.

In a social media environment, what can we do to make our forums thrive and contribute value? For Bill and I, the answer is different because we’re different in how we think a forums should be run and what they’re for. Next week I’ll announce the first part in our projected plan to take the forums into a new direction, with an emphasis on contributing ways to support those who believe in building better web sites for a better world.

I don’t think it was any accident I was given the example of my son, Stefan, and his approach to his life in sports.

He’s very committed, even when he’s in pain. If the other team has 3 guys on him, he fights them off with one arm. When they pile up on him, the ball doesn’t leave his grip. When they’re losing, he still believes in himself. When their Quarterback was out on an injury and the offensive line lost its will, he did what Team Captains do. He tried to offer encouragement and instructions on what to do next, even though he was angry on the inside. In a sad losing game with no score for his team, he “chopped” his way down the center, for the last two minutes of the game and by brute force, got the damned touchdown.

When they were squashed in their last game of the season by an undefeated team (Stefan’s team was undefeated last year), his Dad and I walked out to meet him on the field afterwards to check on his condition. Before we could even reach him, a group of members from the opposing team and four guys from the High School Freshman team, where he’ll play next year, came out on the field, walked up to him and shook his hand.

Respect is something you earn.

Here are my notable article picks for the week, with my thanks to those who inspire me:

Designing for Nonprofits: User Experience Professionals Can Make a Difference in Society

We all find ourselves looking in the mirror at one time or another and asking ourselves if we’re doing all we can for the good of society. What’s it all for?

Those of us in the user experience (UX) profession can actually do something about it. As information architects, interaction designers, usability consultants, and developers, we don’t have to change our careers to do something good for society.

Balancing Usability and Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is the process of designing a Web strategy so that search engine spiders will get the best picture of the Web site that they can. Usability is the process of designing a Web strategy so that visitors will be satisfied with their experience.

Design Engineering: The Next Step

Interaction design determines who the users are, what goals they are trying to achieve, and then creates a tangible, visible plan for how the product will look and behave to get those users to achieve those goals. Over the last few years, more and more companies have adopted interaction design methods. They have flight plans. Why, then, are so many organizations still repeatedly visited by those three ugly horsemen of software apocalypse?

My friends at DT are in the news (again) - Digital Telepathy Helps You Build Your Web 2.0 Startup

The concept is simple: Digital Telepathy offers three design my business options with varying service levels based on the length of each plan. The 15 day plan provides a wannabe startup with market research, strategic alignment, scalable revenue model, instruction manual for project completion and a concept summary delivered as a “Biz in a Box”.

This was a no-brainer for a “bookaholic” like me - Top 5 social web sites for book lovers

Search Engine Land’s Secrets : Mining SearchCap. Perfect for those who equate statistics to Fruit Loops. I am number 57.

Building a Data-Backed Persona is a detailed, well written article on a topic that’s on steroids.

Video presentation by Jared Spool - Delight by Functionality

And finally, Green Communities and Social Networks. Bill hit many of us in a good place with this list, giving us some new ideas and ways to meet others who dream.